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Neuroscience Graduate Forum

The Neuroscience Graduate Program (NGP) at USC includes over 100 full-time students of widely varied backgrounds with broad-ranging interests and pursuits. The graduate students constitute a vigorous group and are proactive in providing input to and leadership for the program through their student-run organization, Neuroscience Graduate Forum (NGF). Students and faculty members together constitute an engaged community of scholars whose interactions are enhanced by weekly seminars, journal club activities, and annual symposia and off-site neuroscience retreats. In addition, group social and recreational activities take advantage of the multicultural vibrancy and diversity of Los Angeles and its surroundings.

The Annual USC Neuroscience Graduate Program Symposium

A committee of graduate students organizes an in-house Neuroscience Graduate Student Symposium every spring in which all talks and poster presentations are given by students. This year the Symposium will be held on January, 20, 2017 at the Radisson Hotel on Figueroa (further information will available as the event approaches). It is an extremely popular and successful event that is attended by all students and faculty in the program, as well as visiting prospective graduate students.

Hello from Brian Leung, the 2016-17 NGF Czar

My name is Brian Leung, and I am the elected student representative, or “Czar,” of the Neuroscience Graduate Forum (NGF), of which you are automatically a member. The purpose of the NGF is to foster a supportive community among the students of the Neuroscience Graduate Program (NGP), as well as any students in other programs conducting neuroscience research (Engineering, Psychology, etc.). We organize various meetings and events that are intended to help students explore the many aspects of a career in neuroscience, to address any general concerns that the students may have, and to provide opportunities for interactions between students and NGP faculty members.

As your Czar, I act as the primary liaison between the graduate students and faculty. I attend all faculty meetings and the NGP Executive Committee meetings to represent the students and their interests. If you do have an issue, be sure to let me know so that it can be brought to the faculty’s attention; a strong working relationship between students and faculty members is essential for maintaining a successful program! My goal this year, as Czar, is to hold events with USC NGP alumni and current students. However, I’ll be in Europe for a quarter of the year, and luckily, our past Czarina, Rachel Yuan (rachelyu@usc.edu), generously volunteered to step-in while I am several time-zones away. We also have several other officers who specialize in different aspects of NGF, so feel free to contact them directly with any relevant questions or concerns you may have. As officers of NGF, our collective goal is to make sure everyone develops a successful and fulfilling graduate career; we hope that everyone will enjoy their time here and want everyone to be aware of the many opportunities in graduate school and beyond, so don’t hesitate to reach out if you need help with something! Check out our NGF website to learn more about our organization or feel free to email me anytime (brianple@usc.edu) with any questions or concerns!